MYTHBUSTER: Busting GOP Myth on Small Business and Taxes

THE FACTS: The nonpartisan Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact labeled the small business claim a “pants on fire” lie.

– 97 percent of small businesses would not pay a penny more due to letting these upper-income tax rates expire for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans – according to experts such as the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation, Treasury Department, Tax Policy Center, and Congressional Research Service, as well as Speaker John Boehner.

– The “small businesses” that Congressional Republicans are trying to protect is anyone who receives any type of business or partnership income – such as athletes, lobbyists, owners of large privately-held multinational companies, more than half of the 400 wealthiest taxpayers in America, and even President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney.

– And the new industry-financed study that Republicans are touting for their job loss claim does not look at the President’s actual plan. The White House fully debunked this study. The President’s plan uses the revenue from ending tax breaks for the top 2 percent for deficit reduction, while the study assumes the revenue will be used for more spending.

– Returning to the top Clinton tax rates won’t hurt the economy or small business. Under the Clinton rates, the economy created nearly 23 million jobs, and “small businesses generated jobs at twice the rate during the Clinton years than they did under the Bush tax code.” [Center on Budget Policy Priorities]